Since When Were We a Pack?
by Shitsuo-kun
Summary: Tsume and Toboe are out on patrol when they suddenly find a she-wolf. With the scent of death, despair, and flowers Tsume has no idea what to do with her. He can't shake the feeling of chaos that seems to surround her and he slowly begins to realize it's best if she quickly finds the one she calls Luna. But will it be too late? Pre-rated for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Who are you?

The rain poured down, clouding the vision of the young teenage girl walking through the forest. She clutched her arm, trying to apply more pressure to keep her blood from flowing out even more so. It was obvious she'd lost a lot of blood. As a matter of fact, she was close to fainting where she stood.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she heard a voice telling her to keep going. She had to, otherwise she'd die. She knew this much.

"Have to...keep...go..ing..." She fell forward, landing in the mud on her face. It took all of her strength to turn her head slightly so she wouldn't suffocate. _I can't...I can't go on...Luna, help m..._

Her thoughts hazed as she slipped into unconsciousness.

"Tsume, slow down!"

A brown-furred wolf raced after a grey-furred one, panting heavily as it rushed on. Its light brown eyes danced with dots as it pushed himself more and more.

The grey-furred wolf, though, moved swiftly, gracefully, and as though it had an endless power source. Its golden eyes were narrowed with concentration. A while ago it had picked up a strange scent. It smelled of something sweet yet death and, since it and its' chatty companion were on patrol tonight, it was a part of the wolf's job to go check it out. How something managed to smell of a flower and at the same time death was unknown to it. Maybe it was another flower maiden? So far that was the only conclusion it could come to so it had even more of a reason to rush. If a flower maiden was dying there was something wrong going on. Especially since it had been sunny and raining a lot recently. Flower maidens couldn't get over-watered, could they?

"Hey, what's that?"

The grey wolf came to an abrupt halt, looking to its right slightly and growling under its breath. In the mud laid a wolf. Its black fur was streaked with a flame red and a darker red around its shoulder. It looked as though the darker red was washing away into the mud, instantly making the white wolf realize it wasn't a part of her fur but instead blood.

The grey wolf slowly treaded towards the strange wolf, its broad shoulders hunched slightly. It stopped a few inches from the smaller, darker toned wolf, tilting its head a bit.

The scent of death was most definitely coming from this wolf. That was without a doubt. But what the grey wolf wanted to know was where it smelled the lovely scent of flowers. Its gaze flew around the area for a bit but the trees mixed with the rain prevented it from seeing too far. Even with its heightened sight it couldn't see too far through the pouring rain.

A sudden whimper startled the wolf, turning its attention to the black and red wolf at its paws.

The red eyes of the wolf connected with the larger wolf's gold ones, seeming to plead yet threaten it. The grey wolf scoffed, biting back a small, rather awkward sound. It couldn't help but think how much this wolf reminded it of itself.

Within seconds the wolf reverted to a human form. It appeared as a man in his late teens to early twenties with a white X scar across his tan chest. His once golden eyes were now hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses that clad perfectly with his rather gothic attire. Leather jeans, black combat boots, and (since it had been raining) just his black leather jacket that stopped just above his mid-riff.

"Tsume, is she alright?"

The older man turned to look at his companion who, like him, had now taken on a human form. He didn't bother giving his partner a good look. He instead turned to look at the wolf laying on the ground, its fur starting to mat to its body. Whether that was due to the rain, the mud, or the blood was unknown to the man.

"Tsume...? What're we going to-"

"Hey, Toboe..." The one called Tsume spoke in a deep voice, looking over his shoulder to look at the younger boy. "She's changing back...Make sure you don't scare her too much with your hyper-activene..."

The man stopped speaking when he heard the sound of a light cough. Both pairs of eyes were downcast to look at the girl. She looked to be no more than sixteen, she was barely pushing seventeen. But, that was just her physical appearance. Looking in her eyes it seemed as though she were maybe eighteen or nineteen. There seened to be some sort of sorrow and...pain in her blood red orbs.

"You...you smell like...Lu...na..."

Tsume managed to catch the girl seconds before she crashed onto the ground again. He could tell she had used all of her strength to raise to her knees so she would be out for some time. What he couldn't quite determine was what she was doing in the middle of the forest. Alone, on top of that. She seemed far too small and frail to actually wander alone. Maybe her pack had left her behind? Maybe she left them?

"Oooh! Tsume's interested in a girl!"

The hyper boy chimed from behind Tsume, sending an irritated shiver through his spine. The older man was definitely _not_ interested in this female. She was determined, yeah, but she wasn't interesting in the least. Besides, if she was traveling with a pack there would no doubt be some arguments later on. No pack allowed for one of their own to be so heavily injured and left things alone. Especially when there were other wolves around...

Tsume grunted. _Troublesome..._Nonetheless, he picked up the girl, gently holding her like he'd seen humans hold each other before. The girl winced a few times as Tsume took the first few steps but soon layed restless in his arms. There was a strong scent of earth on the girl, unnaturally strong...Even if she had collapsed hours ago (which Tsume doubted) there was no reason for her to smell this much like earth.

It took roughly twenty minutes for Tsume and his companion, Toboe, to arrive at a small cave. By then they were completed drenched and their eyelids hung heavy with rain droplets. Somehow, both men felt like they were just beginning to relax.

"Kiba, Cheza! We're home!" Toboe ran ahead into the cave, his hands outstretched over his head as he waved at a duo sitting in the center of the small cavern. Both turned to look at him with slightly bemused eyes. The young boy's hyperness ceased to amaze them.

Tsume, on the other hand, was starting to get sick of his friend's pure innocence. That innocence lead the young cub to often be deceived, hurt, and, ultimately, left in a corner somewhere huddled and crying. How could they possibly love someone as gullible as Toboe?

"Hey, what's that?" The brunette boy sitting down looked up from the fresh meat in front of him, raising a lazy finger to point at the body in Tsume's arms. He looked down for a moment, almost having forgot about the female wolf he'd found. With a deep sigh Tsume walked to the corner of the cavern, gently setting the girl down and placing his jacket over her. His hand raised to rest on her forehead shortly only to be yanked away.

_She's running a fever...Should be expected, though. I mean, she was outside for some time. And it was raining. And it's kinda cold. And..._A deep blush suddenly covered Tsume's face as he actually looked past the girl's face. She wore a mere band around her breasts that seperated once it reached the center of her cleavage. Her skirt barely covered her thighs and, for unknown reasons, she wore high heels. _Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What?!_

The only girl in the cave crawled over to Tsume and the female wolf, gently placing a hand on Tsume's arm while looking over his shoulder. A small smile crept onto her lips. "This one thinks she's pretty...But isn't she going to need more than that?" The young girl looked over the older one with innocent eyes, smiling as she crawled around the older man. "Yes, she's so cold..." The girl spread her body over the older one's, wrapping her arms around her neck in an almost possessive way.

Tsume could only look away, hoping he could get that image out of his head. _It's not yuri. It's not yuri. It's not yuri._ He risked a glance over his shoulder and his eyes widened. What had initially looked to be a mature scene now took on a whole other light. No, instead of it looking like two girlfriends Tsume couldn't help but think the image before him looked like that of a younger sister and her onee-chan...


	2. She has a name!

The steady sound of rain droplets echoed throughout the cave, waking the young she-wolf. Her red eyes floated around the cavern until she saw the mouth of the cave. A sudden confusion flooded her. Where was she? How had she ended in a cave? Why was she suddenly so warm...?

"Hey, Toboe! Slow down would you?!"

Her head turned to the right where she saw a small group of people sitting around what looked to be fresh meat. She smelled the sweet scent of deer meat, making her stomach growl a little bit as she stared on.

From what she could see there were five people gathered around the dead creature: one girl and four boys. The oldest looking guy had strange white hair yet tan skin. She wanted to look at his eyes but they were covered by out of place shades for the limited light already filtering through the cave. He wore a short jacket that left his midriff exposed and skin tight black leather pants. The shewolf couldn't help but notice how well built his body was.

Then there was a guy who looked close in age to the strange white haired one. This one possessed brown hair and strange blue eyes. The girl had to pull her eyes away from his face to look over the rest of him. He wore a white shirt covered by a jacket and torn blue jeans. She couldn't help but notice he seemed to be ready to move quickly, if necessary.

Another guy, cutting it close from the age looks, had dirty...orange hair? _What...?_ The girl rubbed her eyes and looked again. Yeah, his hair was most definitely orange. He seemed to be a little chubby in the face and wore a sweat shirt and blue jeans that, she noticed, were kind of baggy. The wolf wondered why he seemed to be dressed so heavily when the weather was burning at the time.

She disregarded that, turning from the strange guy to look at one far more adorable. He had dull red hair and a huge smile. There was something radiating off of him that made the girl want to just run over and hug him. She didn't know what it was but...His brown-ish eyes were huge and innocent, making the girl want to think of smiling...just a bit. He seemed to be kind of small and he was well dressed. Adorable!

Then there was that single girl. She was really small and looked like if she were to be touched, even once, she would shatter into a billion tiny shards. Her huge red eyes were filled with an expression the female wolf couldn't quite understand. She saw what looked to be pain yet happiness...She couldn't help but wonder what was going on with the girl. She looked like she was (maybe) nine and her beautiful yet short purple hair cradled her angel face.

The she-wolf suddenly lost all will of her body. She slowly rose to her feet, wincing as her shoulder throbbed in slight pain, and limped her way to the young girl. The young girl immediately turned to look at the wolf, a gentle smile on her face as she welcomed the creature into a warm, comforting embrace. But, that didn't last long. A short whimper from the wolf caused the girl to let go, giving the wolf a worried expression.

"Don't feel bad for her, Cheza." Both females turned to look at the white-haired male who now leaned back with his legs crossed and his head tilted back, staring up at the ceiling. "She's the one who got up..." He spoke in a dispassionate tone, shaking his head as he looked towards the girls. His eyes widened a bit when he did, though.

For some reason both girls had started nuzzling one another. The young girl, Cheza as she was called, held onto the wolf, giggling a bit as the wolf licked her cheeks. A sudden warmth shot through Tsume, making him gasp a bit as it filled him slowly. The wolf's eyes were filled with some strange emotion that seemed foreign to Tsume.

His attention was yanked from the girls and towards the rest of the pack when he heard a chuckle from behind him. He turned, a scowl set on his face, to make eye contact with the younger man with brown hair and blue eyes. The guy was smirking, trying yet failing to cover it up.

"What's so funny?" Tsume growled towards the younger man, narrowing his eyes and balling his fists.

The guy shrugged, shaking his head. "Nothing, nothing...Where'd you find this one anyways? Why'd you bring her here?" The amusement slowly dropped out of the guy's face, turning to a serious one instead. He crossed his arms as he leaned against the wall, his eyes turning cold. "And what's with her scent? Even Hige can't place it..."

A small growl resonated from deep within Tsume. He'd figured they wouldn't be able to understand the scent from the wolf. Hell, even he couldn't. All he could tell was that she was a wolf that wasn't around a pack.

"Oh, right..." Tsume straightened himself, standing up and stretching his arms towards the sky. "Do you know if there's another pack anywhere else?" He turned to look at the brunette, rubbing a lazy hand over the left side of his face and smearing the blood on his mouth in the process. A temporary look of disgust crossed his features as some of the remaining blood trickled into his mouth. For some odd reason it tasted bitter than it had when he was feasting...

Just as Tsume was thinking of going out to find a place to bathe his thoughts were interrupted. "Not that I know of...Aside from Darcia's lanky I think we're the only ones left..." The guy crossed his arms, looking towards the girl and letting out a heavy sigh. "I honestly don't see how she's alive...I could've sworn we were the last ones left but..." He trailed off, shaking his head a bit in confusion. "I don't understand..."

Well, that wasn't very helpful now was it? Tsume shook his head, forcing the thoughts of annoyance out of his mind. He couldn't get mad at the alpha now could he? Besides, it was too early in the morning to start a fight with the kid. It would take too much energy and last far too long...

Once again, Tsume's eyes drifted to the young she-wolf. "Hey!" He grabbed her attention with an annoying bark, growling as he stomped towards the girl, his hands balled into fists. "I'm sick of seeing you as a wolf! If you can change then why don't you?! What, you wanna keep getting held onto by Cheza?!" His annoyance flowed out as he arrived to the two cuddling girls.

As he stared at the image, Tsume found himself getting angrier and angrier. Why was completely unknown to him. It was just happening and he found it to be really annoying! Then it hit him. He didn't want Cheza to be covered by the scent of this stupid she-wolf. When (and _if_) the girl's pack came to get her he didn't want Cheza to be attacked because she smelled like this stupid female. That would be an unnecessary hassle, to him and the others.

The girl just stared at him, her eyes filled with confusion and something else Tsume couldn't quite put his finger on. Either way, she seemed to be trying to give him an innocent puppy-dog look.

"Agh!" The older male placed his hands on either side of his head. "Don't get your scent on her you stupid, stupid girl! Let go of her now!" He pointed at the wolf, his entire body trembling with rage. It took one of the other guys to put their hand on his shoulder before Tsume calmed down a bit. Looking over his shoulder he was greeted by a smiling face. "Hey, Toboe...You don't have to look like that you know."

And just like that all of the rage emptied from within Tsume, instead turning towards the affection he had for the younger boy. He sighed, lifting a hand to rustle the cub's hair. This made the young one, Toboe, smile even brighter which, in turn, made Tsume crack a smile. Somehow, he could never stay upset when this kid was all happy. It was just impossible.

Feeling defeated Tsume turned away from the others, facing the mouth of the cavern and feeling his shoulders tense up. He suddenly needed to run. He didn't know where, nor did he know what for exactly, he just needed to run. It suddenly felt as though he was being...suffocated in this place. When he turned to look at the girl, Cheza, and the she-wolf he felt something stab at him.

Yeah, it was time to get out.

He muttered a quick farewell to everyone before rushing out of the cave, making the young she-wolf stare at him in slight confusion.

Since she'd arrived he'd just been staring and/or glaring at her. In the beginning it had kind of made her annoyed but she'd gotten used to him. The girl, Cheza she'd found out, had told her that the guy, Tsume, was always like that. Apparently he had serious trust issues and he didn't like anyone new coming into the pack. But, on the same token he was unable to leave anyone alone when there was no doubt they'd be killed if they'd been left alone.

In other words his inner feelings contradicted with his personality.

The girl shook her head before allowing herself to take on a human illusion. Since Tsume had screamed at her she felt no need to give him what he wanted. She would make sure he never saw her human illusion, not if she had anything to do with it, anyways. If he didn't have the courtesy to politely ask then why would she grant him the privilege of seeing her real self? Besides, she kinda liked cuddling with the girl. She smelled a little like Luna...

As she straighted out her clothes the she-wolf felt the eyes of the others in the cave resting on her. Cheza had told who they were all and their thoughts on a new member joining the pack. Honestly, the only one that seemed to have a (huge) problem was Tsume. Granted the one Cheza had told her was Kiba didn't seem too thrilled he'd apparantly approve of it just because she was another girl and he thought that would be what Cheza needed.

The chubby guy, Cheza had told her his name was Hige, walked towards the two girls. Out of pure instinct the she-wolf transformed to her animal counterpart and stood in front of the young girl, baring her teeth. Although the girl knew it wasn't a good thing she couldn't help but protect Cheza.

"Hey, hey...Calm down...I was just bringing you some meat."

Hige held out a bit of the deer meat to the she-wolf, a small smile on his lips. The girl looked in slight confusion before gently taking a small bite of the food. The instant the meat touched her tongue, though, her eyes widened. She waited until Hige dropped the meat and stepped back before digging in. She realized at that very moment that she was, indeed, starving.

Upon finishing the small amout of food the girl took on her human illusion, crossing her legs and wiping the blood from her face. From the looks on the faces of the other wolves they were obviously surprised. The girl wasn't too surprised, though. A lot of people were surprised when they saw the illusion she took on. Although, she had yet to figure out why that was, exactly.

"So, do you have a name?"

The girl turned her head to look at the one called Toboe. He sat with his legs crossed and his hands resting on his ankles. The expression on his face was one of interest mixed with a huge dose of adorable. The girl fought the urge to hug him, instead looking to Cheza and leaning towards her.

As the girl looked back to Toboe she shook her head, lifting her hand to lick the back of it.

Toboe's mouth gaped, his hands flying to cover it. "No way!" He shook his head repeatedly before jumping up, pointing at the girl with a determined gaze. "We have to name you!"

For a while the girl just looked up at the younger boy in shock and confusion. What was going on with this guy was far over her head but she didn't really care. She shrugged lazily, rubbing a lazy hand through her thick hair, sending it cascading over her shoulders.

"Okay guys, let's go!" Toboe fist-pumped enthusiastically, giggling like mad.

Hige was the first to speak. "How about...Shi?"

A deafening silence drifted throughout the cavern as the word was spoke. Death. That seemed to fit this girl. After all, she did reek heavily of death. On the other hand, that was a rather depressing name. Most definitely not! They couldn't use a name so...terrible!

It was a unanymous denial.

Next, the one called Kiba gave it a shot. "How about Yuki?"

Another silence filled the air. Yuki...Snow...No way. This girl was kind of pale but she wasn't pale enough. Aside from that, it was the middle of spring, no time anywhere near winter so that name was kind of dumb. Oh, and not to mention this girl wasn't that cold towards the group. She'd opened up with Cheza so she didn't deserve such a cruel name.

After a while Toboe snapped his fingers, smiling brightly. "I got it!" All heads turned to look at him, slight impatience decorated throughout the varied colored orbs. "How about we call her Rika?"

Valued fragrance, it fit good enough. She had an unknown scent that reminded them of death but another luna flower. Yeah, that was a wonderful name. On top of that, it had a kind of innocent tone to it. that was perfect. The girl seemed to be kind of innocent, in her own way.

It was decided. The strange girl would be called Rika.

"So, Rika, how do you like it?"

The girl just stared at Toboe as he asked the question. She was unable to completely understand why he felt the need to name her but at the same time she didn't quite care. So, with a rather bored expression, the girl shrugged. She'd be called Rika from then on out. And they all openly accepted it. As a matter of fact, they seemed to embrace the thought of actually naming the girl Rika.

When the momentary confusion (and uncaring) passed the girl gave a small nod, a smile crossing her face. Looking in her eyes everyone was shocked to see the first real emotion in her eyes since her arrival.

A sense of belonging...


End file.
